Overview

The Wisconsin Grant (WG-PNP) Program provides grant assistance to undergraduate, Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in degree or certificate programs at nonprofit, independent colleges or universities based in Wisconsin.  The maximum award amount is established annually by Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB). Eligibility cannot exceed ten terms.

Reference Links

• http://www.heab.wi.gov/docs/finadmin/guides/guide-wgpnplayout.docx
• Bulletin SS - 3317 Wisconsin State Financial Aid Programs

Acronyms

Background

Starting with Release 4.3.1.0, Regent Award (previously R8) is supporting automatic awarding and disbursement of the Wisconsin Grant. Introducing automation into the state grant processing is expected to result in significant cost savings as well as help in awarding accuracy for the schools.

How is the school notified

A weekly notification report from Wisconsin (WI) state is received containing eligible students. Please note that this weekly roster serves as a weekly eligibility notification report as well as weekly requested disbursement approval/rejection report . 

Wisconsin Grant Roster

Students who are eligible to be awarded the WG-PNP are identified by importing the WI HEAB Roster file into Regent Award via the Processes screen or FileWatcher (sFTP). The file is a tab delimited file, specific to a Federal Award Year (FAY). There will be a different file for each FAY. The file name is used to determine the FAY associated to the file. For example, the file named 06.01.2017_Notif_253_1617_20170530.txt, is for 2016-2017 FAY. The file layout is specified here: http://www.heab.wi.gov/docs/finadmin/guides/guide-wgpnplayout.docx.

Import Wisconsin State Grants Process

To import WI HEAB Roster via UI,  on the Processes-->Import Process screen, select "Import State Grants" under Process Type drop-down and select "Wisconsin" under State drop-down. Only users with the "Import State Grants" permission can access this process.

The students on the roster file will be matched to a student record in Regent Award using the Social Security Number (SSN) only since the students eligible to receive the award will always have an ISIR. 

Implentation Note: There is no value in the data that can be used to identify the student's Institution. That means if the same student (same person) has a student record under multiple Institutions where the same SSN is specified, then the WI data will never match to a distinct student. For schools that have only one Institution, this would not be an issue.

Any attempt to run the Import State Grants process produces a Process Log entry.

Upon successful import of the file, an Activity Log Entry "Imported on WI HEAB Roster for  [amount] as [status]." is created for each student on the imported roster. 

In cases where the students imported on the Roster cannot be matched to a student record in Regent Award, the Award Roster - Reprocess process can be scheduled to run per the school’s request.  This process will re-process unmatched student roster records to determine if a match can be made to a student in Regent Award (because the student record has been created in Regent Award since the first attempt to match).  This process also produces Process Log and Activity Log entries similar to the Import Wisconsin State Grants process.

FileWatcher

The Import WI State Grant process is also available via FileWatcher.

Folder Name	Process Type	FileWatcher Monitored	Description
StateGrantLoadWI	Import		Processed State Grant WI (Roster Award) files Files uploaded from the UI (where REM calls DEX to process them) Also, files that have processed via being loaded into the _FW folder
StateGrantLoadWI_FW	Import		State Grant WI (Roster Award) files processing Sync'd with SFTP Files typically only exist in this folder when they are processing

Reprocess

In order to match up the State-provided data that was loaded prior to students existing in Regent Award to the students once they exist, 'Roster Award - Reprocess'  was created.   This process reprocesses only the current and immediately prior FAY vs. all FAYs in the data. Here is how the FAYs are determined:

• Example for 11/01/2017: 2016-2017 & 2017-2018 (FAYs 2017 & 2018)
• Example for 01/01/2018: 2017-2018 & 2018-2019 (FAYs 2018 & 2019)
• Example for 06/30/2018: 2017-2018 & 2018-2019 (FAYs 2018 & 2019)
• To allow for "early" and "late" files by FAY, the logic relates to the calendar year

In order for a record to be reprocessed, it must meet the following criteria from RosterAwardRawData:

• validForReprocess = 1
• deleted = 0
• FAY is either the current or immediately prior FAY (see note above)

Implementation Note: The school is expected to request Regent to enable this process as needed.

Eligibility

To receive WG-PNP, students must be Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in an undergraduate degree or certificate program at a private, nonprofit institution. Students who have previously earned a Bachelor’s degree are not eligible for WG-PNP.  A student’s eligibility for the Wisconsin Grant is determined by their dependency status, EFC, and tuition rate.  

Eligible students will be imported into Regent Award via the WI Notification Roster file.  The file will be imported into Regent Award as a tab-delimited file for the Financial Aid Award Year (FAY). There is going to be a different file for each FAY. Regent Award will use the roster to determine eligible students for awarding.

Eligibility criteria is outlined in detail in the exhibit Bulletin SS - 3317 Wisconsin State Financial Aid Programs.  Regent Award is not expected to do anything with students that are ineligible on the weekly roster.

Eligibility for each Federal Award Year’s Wisconsin Grant begins in the Fall. A less than full-time term counts as an entire term of eligibility toward a student’s maximum of ten terms of eligibility. When a student withdraws from the University and a portion of their grant is refunded, that also counts as an entire term of eligibility.  

Once imported, Regent Award uses the roster and existing Regent Award data to determine eligible students for awarding using the following criteria:

• Roster criteria:
  • Student record does not contain a “R” in the REJECT column
  • Student’s award is greater than $0 in the CALCSTAWARD column
  • Eligibility per student cannot exceed 10 semesters in the WGTGSM column.
• Regent Award criteria:
  • Student must be enrolled at least half time in the term (program applicable units only)
  • Student is awarded for the federal award year associated with the current roster only (Regent Award doesn’t not anticipate awarding for future FAYs for which we do not yet have a roster)
  • Student must be in an eligible program
    • Fund Setup: Make fund available to all programs = Yes
    • Ruleset's eligibility check limits eligiblity to only the programs that appear in the school-specific mapping.  

Awarding

WG-PNP is awarded annually at the Federal Award Year level. The Wisconsin FAY contains three terms: Fall, Spring, and Summer. Regent Award reviews all eligible students imported via the roster and uses the calculated amount based on the WG-PNP Formula (see below) and the tuition-dependent Tier mapping established by the school. The tuition rate is determined by a lookup of the configured cost tiers that the school sets up with the state program. This information is school specific and must be coded in Regent Award for the school to use this feature.

Upon awarding, Regent Award checks for a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for the Wisconsin Grant. If the student does not have a valid (non-blank EFC) Active ISIR or has open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for Wisconsin Grant, the Wisconsin Grant will be blocked from packaging.

Regent Award's calculation references the student’s program and enrollment level (registered program applicable units only) and divides the award amount by the number of registered eligible terms to determine the award amount for each eligible term. The resulting calculated amount will be awarded for the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms, as applicable. The award will be recalculated each term based on credit level.

Only ‘Actual’ enrollment status (course data sent on the SBL) is used in calculating the Wisconsin Grant. Anticipated enrollment (i.e. currently configured as full-time) will not be used. The school is required to provide actual course data for the terms in the Wisconsin Grant Federal Award Year to ensure proper awarding of the fund.

WG-PNP Calculation: 

1. Determine the student's External Program ID in Regent Award 
2. Determine the student's Anticipated Program Start Date in Regent Award 
3. Match the student to a Tuition Tier using External Program Id, and Anticipated Program Start Date in the school-specific lookup
4. Determine the student's total registered program applicable units for the term in Regent Award 
5. Determine the student's number of eligible terms in the FAY in Regent Award 
6. Depending on the Tuition Tier, determine the student's Anticipated Program Start Date in Regent Award 
   • Any students who are on the Notification Report and enrolled in more than 20 credits should use ’20 credits’ to determine the calculation.
7. Use the Tuition Amount for the Tuition Code in the school-specific lookup to determine the award using the formula below.
   • Step 4 – Round the ‘Family Contribution Percentage’ to four decimal places.
   • Step 5 – Round the ‘Multiplied by Family Contribution percentage’ to four decimal places.
   • Step 6 – Round ‘Tuition Offset’ and ‘Less Tuition Offset’ to two decimal places.  Round the result of Step 6 to the nearest dollar.

WG-PNP Formula: 

If it is determined that a student will not be enrolled at least half-time in all 3 terms of the FAY (Fall, Spring and Summer), the 2-term tuition amount is used to determine the award amount. If the student is enrolled at least half-time in 2 terms, the resulting award amount is disbursed over 2 terms. If the student is enrolled at least half-time in only 1 term, the resulting award amount is divided by 2 for the single term. If the student is not enrolled at least half-time in any terms, the resulting award amount will be zero and a zero disbursement amount will be scheduled for the terms.

If a student’s award for a term results in a $0 calculated award amount for a term (e.g. tuition code or calculated amount), the student would not be eligible for a disbursement for the term. However, this is not treated in the same manner as a less than half-time term for determining if a 2-semester or 3-semester tuition code will be used. For example, a student is attending at least half-time in all 3 terms of the FAY but no tuition code exists for one of the terms based on the enrollment level, that term will result in a $0 disbursement but the overall award for the other two terms will use the 3-semester tuition code and receive 1/3 of the calculated amount for each of the two terms.

The amount of the award is rounded up if awarding in the first term (i.e. fall) and down if awarding in the second or third terms (i.e. spring or summer).

The awarding for the FAY is ceased at the end of the 3rd term (Summer).

In a scenario where the roster shows the student as eligible, but Regent Award determines the student to be ineligible (the award is below minimum, etc.), the award of $0 is created in a "Cancelled" status with the explanatory award message "Student is eneligible for Fund "Wisconsin Grant" in Award Period "YYYY-YYYY" (7/1/YYYY-6/30/YYYY)." in the Activity Log Entries.

Minimum and maximum awards are set annually by HEAB. For 2017-2018 FAY, the minimum and maximum award amounts are:

• Minimum: $1,000
• Maximum: $3,150

Supplemental Award

Regent Award will identify any supplemental awards from the roster field, STSUPAWRD.  Regent Award will treat all supplemental awards as a one-time award per FAY.  The award will use the date of the initial notification roster for which the supplemental award was listed to determine which term the award should be scheduled for. 

Packaging up to Cost of Attendance (COA)

If the Wisconsin Grant award amount would exceed the student's cost of attendance, Regent Award will reduce awards in accordance with the Packaging Philosophy and if applicable, will reduce the Wisconsin Grant award amount to cover up to the remaining cost of attendance.  If the student's COA is less than a minimum award amount for WG-PNP ($1,000), the student is not eligible to recieve the award.

Recalculation

Upon re-packaging, Regent Award checks for a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for the Wisconsin Grant. If the student does not have a valid (non-blank EFC) Active ISIR or has open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for Wisconsin Grant, the Wisconsin Grant will be blocked from re-packaging.

Upon re-packaging, Regent Award checks for a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and for Active ISIR being paid on "verification completed".  If either of these conditions is not met, the Wisconsin Grant is blocked from re-packaging (existing award is frozen) and disbursement.  

Regent Award recalculates enrollment status when the SBL file is imported and recalculates award amounts for the Wisconsin Grant during the packaging process.   The enrollment status used in the calculated award amount fluctuates based on current and future courses (similar to Pell).  For example, if a student withdraws from a course(s) prior to the end of the term, the award will be updated based on the new tuition code, as applicable. 

Wisconsin State requires upward and downward award adjustments due to eligibility changes (e.g. Primary EFC changes, retroactive enrollment level changes, COA changes) or unpaid disbursements to be made for past, current and future terms with the following exceptions:

Exception 1

Downward adjustments are not made if the disbursement is paid AND the term is closed AND the student is moving from a 3-semester award to a 2-semester award OR a 2-semester award to a 3-semester award.  But such a change will impact subsequent term eligibility.

In the event of a decrease in the calculated amount of a paid disbursement for a closed term for a student moving from a 3-semester award to a 2-semester award OR a 2-semester award to a 3-semester award, the calculated eligibility would not result in a downward adjustment but rather would impact the calculated awards for subsequent term(s) (see Initial 2-Semester Award Amounts and 3-Semester Award and Disbursement Amounts examples below).  Each term’s award amount is recalculated based on the new eligibility.  Remaining eligibility for subsequent term award amounts is reduced by the amount of the previously paid disbursement for the closed term.  Subsequent terms will only be eligible to receive up to the remaining calculated eligibility that was not yet paid (the remaining non-spent eligibility).

If an award amount for a closed term has not yet been disbursed, the award amount must be recalculated based on current eligibility upwards or downwards before invoicing the state for disbursement. 

Example 1:  2-semester award to a 3-semester award scenario 

Based on 2-semester Tuition Code 7, the student is eligible for an annual award of $3,150. A student is initially awarded and paid $1,575 for the full-time Fall and Spring terms. During the Spring semester, the student becomes eligible at 7 credits for the Summer after the Fall term has closed:

• The FT Fall award will remain as $1,575 because the term is closed.
• The FT Spring term award would be updated from $1,575 to $1,050 because the Spring term is still open.
• The 7 credit Summer term would be eligible for the remaining eligibility of $394 (up to $3,019; $1,050 + $1,050 + $919) based on the 3-semester Tuition Code 1.

Initial 2-Semester Roster Award Amounts:

3-Semester Roster Award and Disbursement Amounts:

Example 2:  3-semester award to a 2-semester award scenario 

If a student is initially awarded and paid based on the 3-semester tuition amount $1,050 for the full-time Fall term, $1,050 for the full-time Spring term and $919 for the 7 credit Summer term and the student drops to less than half time for the Summer after the Fall term has closed:

• The FT Fall term award would be updated from $1,050 to $1,575 regardless of term being open or closed since upward adjustments are required
• The FT Spring term award would be updated from $1,050 to $1,575. The Summer term award would be cancelled (updated to zero).

Initial 3-Semester Award Amounts:

2-Semester Award and Disbursement Amounts:

Note:  In a scenario where the first term (Fall) is in a historic (AY0) Academic Year and the student is moving from a 3-semester award to a 2-semester award OR a 2-semester award to a 3-semester award , a student may be incorrectly awarded during the FAY.  The Task, "Review WG-PNP award eligibility in AY0", will be triggered.  The user may adjust WI Grant manually via Modify Award Wizard (MAW) if necessary. A manual award adjustment will mark this award as "Manual" (not managed by Regent Award for the remainder of FAY).

Exception 2

Neither upward or downward adjustments are made to disbursements after the student is fully withdrawn or graduated from school, except as a result of an R2T4.If the student returns into a new program after withdrawing or graduating from a prior program, neither upward or downward adjustments are made to the prior program, unless a reversal of the R2T4 is performed for a withdraw (returning into the same term as withdraw).

A withdrawn course(s) will update the enrollment level for the term, regardless of whether or not the course was attended, and is required to be recalculated for open and future terms. Courses are withdrawn by SBL if the course is no longer in attendance or if the course has been unregistered.  A full withdraw from school for the current term requires an R2T4 to be performed using the calculated award amount with the enrollment level at the time of withdrawal.  The R2T4 may result in a refund to disbursed Wisconsin Grant award amounts for the term.  If the award has not yet been disbursed at the time of withdrawal, the student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement of Wisconsin Grant funds.

Withdrawals/Refund Policy

Withdrawals and refunds are not automated in Regent Award.

Federal methodology will be used to determine the amount of funds to be returned to HEAB. State aid programs will have priority for any credit balance remaining from an institutional refund after the federal R2T4 requirements are satisfied. 

When a tuition refund is issued and there is a balance remaining after federal funds have been returned to the appropriate federal programs, WG-PNP is next in line to receive a refund. The amount of state grants refunded shall not exceed the “unearned” percentage of grant, consistent with the “unearned” percentage of federal funds. Note: should a student at any point in the term receive a 100% refund of tuition, the entire WG-PNP award for the term shall be returned to HEAB regardless of the calculated federal unearned percentage.  

Note:  When a full withdrawal occurs, it is possible for the previously closed term to be adjusted upward.  For example, 

• Fall 2017 - $1,050 (paid)
• Spring 2018 -  $1,050 (unpaid)
• Summer 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid)

Student withdraws from the Spring and Summer terms during the Spring term timeframe.  

• Fall 2017 - $1,050 (paid) is adjusted to $1,575 ↑
• Spring 2018 -  $1,050 (unpaid) - remains unchanged due to full withdrawal
• Summer 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid) - adjusted to $0 (loss of eligibility due to withdrawal prior to the term's start date)MA

Since a full withdrawal would require a R2T4, this award will need to be reviewed for the entire FAY and possibly adjusted manually.

Program Changes

The school will be responsible for updating the program change tuition code information with the state. 

In the event of a program change, Regent Award will determine if the new program is associated to the fund (The Program must be elgible according to the school-specific mapping) and if it is, will associate any calculated term awards to the new program.  If the new program is not associated to the fund, Regent Award will determine how many FAY terms the student will be enrolled in for the old program.  If the student will not be attending all 3 terms in the FAY for the old program, Regent Award will recalculate the award as if the student did not enroll at least half-time in all 3 terms of the FAY for the old program. 

Manual Awards

The school staff can also manually add or adjust WI State Grant awards using Add / Modify Award Wizards. Those staff-adjusted awards will be marked Manual (not managed by Regent Award).  The auto-packaging logic will not make any changes to Manual awards. 

Disbursements

Regent Award determines that the student is eligible for a disbursement using the following criteria:

• Student is enrolled at least half-time
• Student does not have a reject for the award in the roster file (REJECT ≠ R).
  • "Reject" on the roster indicates ineligibility as of the date that the roster file was received. Closed terms that have already been paid are not affected.
• A disbursement amount (greater than $0) exists in the roster file.
  • Regent Award identifies disbursements via the roster field, STSPNT* (* is represented in the roster with a 1 for the Fall term, 2 for the Spring term or 3 for the Summer term).
•  All tasks and documents that restrict disbursement for the fund are honored.

If the disbursement amount from the roster file equals the disbursement amount in Regent Award, Regent Award updates the award to reflect the paid disbursement at the time the EST process is ran. If the disbursement amount from the roster file is greater than $0 and does not equal the scheduled disbursement amount in Regent Award, the “Review WG-PNP Disbursement Amount” task is triggered and the award needs to be reviewed by the school. When configured, the task (if not "Completed", "Waived", or "Closed") blocks future disbursements for the student. Completing or closing the task authorizes the Regent Award disbursements. 

Import Awards 

When WG-PNP awards for 2017-2018 FAY are imported into Regent Award, it is possible for the students that begin an AY in Spring to have Fall awards imported into AY0.

Regent Award will freeze Payment Periods for WG-PNP award imported into AY0.  The AY0 Payment Periods will be assumed to be eligible, while the amounts will be locked down to prevent Regent Award from changing.  Regent Award will also trigger a task when the following criteria is met:

• WG-PNP award is in AY0
• Award is not Manual
• There is a 2- to 3- or 3- to 2- semester change for the FAY

The task will be configured to block future disbursements for the award.  Satisfying the task will remove the block.  Modifying the award through Modify Award Wizard (MAW) will make this award Manual (not managed by Regent Award for the rest of the FAY).  

State Tab

Once the student is successfully packaged, the Wisconsin Grant award information can be viewed on the student’s State tab. Clicking on the record in the State Awards grid displays the details in the State Data Records.  

Reporting

In addition to the standard fields on the Process Log Details screen, a button to access Import Wisconsin State Grant Process Results Report is provided. This report allows the user to view the imported WI HEAB Roster file in the tabular format.

To support Wisconsin Grant (WG-PNP) award processing,  WI State Grant Report was created. Access to the report is controlled by the “View Students” and “View Students SSN” permissions.